The first bill has arrived, and suddenly, it’s time. Your student is going to college and you’ve got to figure out how to finance it.

When it comes to education financing, a family’s first choice should always be the federal Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans. These are low-cost, fixed-rate loans (the rate for loans borrowed this year will be 3.76%), and the most that a dependent undergraduate student can borrow is $27,000 over the course of four years. The good news is that this loan is in the student’s name alone and your student will be solely responsible for repayment.

On last week’s episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation, host Ian Fisher debuted our new School’s Out series, held Office Hours with a former Yale admissions officer, and unpacked some of your student loan options.

Last week we provided advice for newly minted college graduates who need to take account of their student loans and repayment plans. Below, you can find tips for staying on top of your debt over these next few years of repayment.

Tip 1: Don’t Be Late

Paying late can affect a borrower’s credit. As with any other bill or financial responsibility, it is important for graduates to understand the notion that their credit history, including payment details, will influence their future credit options, such as purchasing a house or a car. Everything a borrower does now will play a part in their future borrowing options.

With your college graduation now an exciting memory, you may be thinking ahead to loan repayment and wondering exactly how much you’ve borrowed. The type of loans you have, where you borrowed them from, the terms of the loans, and the total amount borrowed are all critical pieces of information you need to have in order to tackle the loan repayment process. While students typically attend an “exit counseling” session prior to graduating at which important loan repayment information is shared, it’s equally important to go one step further on your own to ensure that you have identified all of your education loans. Understanding the exact amount of your student loan debt and developing a detailed repayment plan is the key to being a successful borrower.

The federal government has just furnished the Class of 2016 with a valuable graduation present—the gift of low interest rates.

Per 2013 legislation, federal student loan interest rates are set for each upcoming school year based upon the 10-year U.S. Treasury Note yield as of June 1st. The final Treasury Note auction prior to June 1st was held on Wednesday, so we now know rates for loans soon-to-be borrowed for the 2016/17 academic year. Happily for student loan borrowers and their families, the news is good!

A recent New York Timesop-ed shared a controversial view on educational loans: it is fine to borrow and never pay them back. A few days later, a rebuttal piece criticized author Lee Siegel and the New York Times for their “deeply irresponsible op-ed.” At College Coach, we are passionate about providing the best advice available with respect to college aid, and we felt we had to provide our own perspective for those families who might have read Siegel’s original piece.

We see no reason why families should take on huge amounts of debt for an undergraduate degree. Contrary to what Siegel assumes, lower and middle class families do not have to borrow huge amounts of money to get a good education. College Coach finance experts work with families every single day to determine how much they can afford and, if borrowing is going to be part of their college financing plan, how to be successful in repayment.

If you graduated this past spring and used student loans as part of your college financing strategy, you likely just received (or will soon receive) your very first student loan bill. For many graduates, this first bill can come as an unwelcome surprise. Sure, you knew you had to pay these loans back someday, but now that that day is here, and you see the size of your expected monthly payment, you may be feeling unprepared to handle repayment. Rest assured: if that monthly payment seems unaffordable based on your current financial circumstances, you do have some options. The government offers a number of repayment plans for your federal education loans, some of which may provide you with some relief:

In breaking student loan news, this afternoon President Obama signed an executive order designed to provide repayment relief to struggling student loan borrowers. Obama’s plan attempts to relieve student debt pressures and decrease defaults in three primary ways:

The student’s other parent or stepparent also can apply for the Parent PLUS Loan which will trigger another credit check for the new borrower to determine his or her eligibility. Finally, the original borrower also has the option to utilize an endorser to cosign the loan. The endorser must pass the credit check, and he or she will be responsible for repaying the loan if the borrower fails to make payments.

About Us

The Insider: College Admissions Advice from the Experts is where College Coach experts weigh in on the latest college admissions topics. We cover everything from application timelines and strategies to tips on financing your child's education.